Just north of Alexandria is the Tioga Heritage Park and Museum, the centerpiece of which is the old Tioga commissary. This building served as department store, grocery, post office and general gathering place for decades and was the defining landmark in this little mill town built to house lumber workers and their families. In operation for nearly a century, it finally went out of business in the early 1980s and has been carefully preserved since then. Today, the commissary building and grounds are being developed as a museum focused on the history of central Louisiana, including the all-important timber business and the Louisiana Maneuvers, which helped train the American army for combat during World War II.